Finger Lakes, NY

After Acadia, our next stop was Trumansburg, NY. I wanted to show Stacey Cornell's campus, as well as the surrounding area of Ithaca and the numerous gorges and waterfalls. Before we could get to Trumansburg though, we had a two day drive from Maine. Burlington, VT was about equidistant, so we made our stop there. We were treated to a beautiful sunset as we walked around on the shore of Lake Champlain after dinner.

Sunset over Lake Champlain, Burlington, VT

For our 4 days in Trumansburg, we found a chapel from the late 1800's that had been fixed up and was now for rent on AirBNB. It was billed as an "artist retreat" - it featured high ceilings, three movable walls to divide up the large open floor plan inside, and abundant art supplies and paintings on the walls.

Waterburg Chapel, our home for 4 days

Chapel interior

As had become standard on the second half of this trip, our time in NY was a met with mix of scattered thunderstorms and sunny days. Our first night was nice weather, so we decided to walk around Cornell's campus after dinner. The next day called for showers, so we planned a number of indoor activities. First on the list was the Ithaca Farmers Market. Not technically indoors, but under an extensive covered pavilion, the farmers market features an impressive number (and quality) of vendors.

Fresh produce at the market

Checking out the vendors

A very friendly farmer with extremely dirty fingernails who sold us carrots

The portion of our take that wasn't immediately consumed

After the farmers market we headed for the Museum of the Earth, which we had driven past between Trumansburg and Ithaca. It turned out to be an excellent little museum full of fossils, many of which you can touch. We even got to sort through locally mined shale in search of our own fossils to keep! We walked away with a couple small pieces of rock with tiny fossilized clams.

Another indoor activity was visiting the Corning Museum of Glass, about an hour away in Corning, NY. At the museum we explored their extensive collection of glass artifacts spanning more than 35 centuries, watched some live glass making demonstrations, and even got to make our own glass.

One of many rooms full of, you guessed it, glass

Bead making

Once the weather cleared, we went out in search of gorges and waterfalls. We headed to Taughannock Falls, Watkins Glen, and Buttermilk Falls to check out the scenery.

Taughannock Falls

A crowded but beautiful Watkins Glen

Buttermilk falls gorge trail

On our last night in town, we went to Roland's mom's annual mid summer potluck.  It was a perfect evening on the farm, and we had a great time seeing Roland and meeting the neighbors.

Summer evening on the farm

Roland and me

Roland's mom, Kundry, and her friend Colleen in the garden, about to pick salad greens

Lovely setting for a potluck

Another beautiful sunset

Later that night, Stacey captured some long exposure shots of the hundreds and hundreds of lightening bugs that lit up the countryside around our little chapel.  It was the most lightening bugs we've ever seen!

Lightning bugs!

All the photos from NY can be found here: Photos